Financial information company Thomson Reuters was down 20 cents, or to $53.03, after some analysts cut their ratings.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's also placed the company on credit watch "negative" from "stable," and Moody's Investor Service put its rating on review for a downgrade. The company on Tuesday announced a deal to sell 55% of its Financial & Risk business to Blackstone Group

Only tech stocks shone a positive light, as BlackBerry advanced 23 cents, or 1.5%, to $15.83, while Constellation Software jumped $9.77, or 1.2%, to $804.88.

On the economic slate, Markit Canada’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index picked up to 55.9 in January from 54.7 in December, to remain well above the 50.0 no-change threshold. Moreover, the latest PMI reading signaled the joint-strongest improvement in business conditions since April 2011.

ON BAYSTREET

The TSX Venture Exchange plummeted 20.64 points, or 2.4%, to 843.71

All but one of the 12 TSX subgroups were lower on the day, with health-care issues ailing 5.9%, consumer staples wilting 1.8%, and utilities off 1.5%.

The lone gainer was information technology, galloping 2.3%.

ON WALLSTREET

U.S. equities pulled back on Thursday as investors worried about rising interest rates

The Dow Jones Industrial gained 37.32 points to 26,186.71, way down from its highs of the day.

January was the best month for the S&P 500 and Dow since March 2016, while the NASDAQ had its biggest one-month gain since October 2015. The S&P 500 also notched its best January performance since 1997.

Thursday marks the busiest days of the U.S. earnings season, with about 70 companies reporting. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Visa and Mattel are among the companies scheduled to report. UPS, AutoNation and Blackstone are among the companies that reported before the bell.

Wall Street also looked ahead to Friday’s release of the U.S. government's monthly jobs report. Economists expect the economy to have added 180,000 jobs.

Stocks were also under pressure after the release of weaker-than-expected productivity numbers. The U.S. government said in a preliminary report that fourth-quarter productivity fell 0.1%. Economists expected a gain of 1%.